My father’s mother and father both grew up on farms in western Minnesota. My grandfather was drafted to serve in WWII right after he married my grandmother. His older brother got an exemption because he was needed to run the family farm, as my great-grandfather had already died by then.
During the war, my grandmother moved to town so she could work, and my great-grandmother (her mother-in-law) moved off the farm and in with her so she could care for my infant father. The way my father tells it, Grandma kind of thought that when Grandpa came back from the war, he would buy a farm and be a farmer, but the Army gave him a taste of life outside the farm and he never went back. He became a bricklayer instead. Eventually, he would move to the suburbs of the Twin Cities, which is where my father and his siblings live today.
My mother grew up on a working farm - they specialized in chickens and eggs by the time she was grown, but they always grew their own corn for feed and they also had at least one milking cow and (I think) a pig or two. They grew their own vegetables on a couple of acres. My grandfather grew up on the same farm, as did his mother. I’m not sure if my great-great-grandfather started the farm or if he also grew up there, but there was a whole lot of agriculture in the family, from what I understand.
My grandmother’s advice to her daughters was, “Never learn to milk a cow, or you’ll have to do it the rest of your life.” My mother and aunt graduated from college and became professionals (a bookkeeper and a teacher) and my uncle went to work at an auto dealership after serving in the Navy (I believe). He stayed on the farm, though, and when he got married he and my aunt lived with my grandfather and brought up my cousins on the farm. My cousin kept raising chickens, but on a smaller scale, and my aunt had a “small” kitchen garden - only one acre.
Since no one of my mother’s generation or mine wanted to farm, after my grandfather and my uncle died, my aunt sold the farm a few years ago. So mine is a family that stopped farming withing the past two generations.
Some great-grandparents (one of whom I met) were peasants in Austria and Poland before moving to the United States. I think my paternal grandfather spent his childhood on a dirt farm in Missouri, but I never met him and I’m a little fuzzy on the details. I’m 100% city kid, and so were my parents.
Damned good question, Sampiro. My known ancestors include Welsh coal miners, an oil field worker, soldiers and sailors, and attorneys, but I can’t think of a single farmer. There was a great-great-etc. on the paternal side who owned a plantation ( and a number of human beings :mad:) in Louisiana, but I wouldn’t dignify him with the title. I picked “Other”.
My father grew up on a working orchard, so my answer to the poll was clear. But I’m not sure how I would “count” my mother if she were the closest thing to a farmer. Her father was a doctor, not a farmer. But she grew up living adjacent to her grandparents’ land, which was a working cattle ranch in a house that was “carved out” of the ranch so her grandparents could give the land to her parents. She certainly was as much part of the ranch operations as most other ranchers’ kids in the area. So does she count as “growing up on a farm,” or not?
Me too! Except for the turf and sheep thing Worked for a couple weeks on my grandfather’s apple orchard, weeding, working the cash register, and sorting apples. My favorite part was watching the apple sorter/bagger machine work its magic.
Plus I weeded, bagged, canned, and sold once or twice on my mom’s farm, but that was basically a hobby farm so that doesn’t cvount.
My grandfather (mother’s father) grew up on a working farm in upstate New York (we have some great pictures, taken in the 70s on a family field trip, of the house he was born and raised in), but left at 17 to attend college. He met my grandmother, a city kid, in San Francisco 12 years later.
My father’s (adoptive) parents both grew up as dirt-poor ranch kids in Texas, they married as teens and my grandpa joined the Navy. His biological mother was born in an industrial city (I forget which) in Scotland and emigrated with her parents (IIRC her dad was a dentist) when she was around 5 years old.
My mother’s parents were dairy farmers and cheese makers. She graduated from high school in 1942 and became a secretary in civil service; her brother farmed until his death about five years ago. His sons, my cousins, still own the property and grow commercial Christmas trees, so I guess that could be considered farming in the current generation.
Farming is a huge part of my family identity. My brother and I are the first down the line to find careers outside of it. Hell, we’re the first to graduate high school! Just like most of you would gawk at a farm, I gawk at the big city, where I find myself at odds with a lot of Dopers.
My grandparents were farmers. Actually my Mom’s Dad moonlighted as a preacher, and my Dad’s Dad moonlighted as a Ford dealer, a Photographer, and eventually became an electrical engineer through a overabundance course, and got a job with the electric utility. Even after my Mom’s parents got old and “retired” to town, they had a huge vegetable garden and a chicken coop.
A number of my aunts and uncles became farmers. Many of them with “day jobs” still farmed a few acres, raised stock, etc. I was sent off to help out on an uncles farm one summer.
Interesting that since this thread had just a few responses, child of someone who grew up on a farm has been the largest single category. I would have thought ‘grandchild’ would be the big one.
I have no generation of family in this country that ever farmed.
On my father’s side, I believe I’m farmer free pretty well all the way back - the furthest back relative that I have any info about was in the House of Lords so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t farming on the side.
On my mum’s side I’m not sure - they were Scottish heritage and I’m not sure farming was that big there. Sheep maybe? I have no idea.
:mad:) in Louisiana, but I wouldn’t dignify him with the title. I picked “Other”.
Worked for a couple weeks on my grandfather’s apple orchard, weeding, working the cash register, and sorting apples. My favorite part was watching the apple sorter/bagger machine work its magic.
My brother and I are the first down the line to find careers outside of it. Hell, we’re the first to graduate high school! Just like most of you would gawk at a farm, I gawk at the big city, where I find myself at odds with a lot of Dopers.